Travel Guide to Phuket Half Day City Tour with Private Transport

Day 1

It was the year end school holiday, and we were going on a 7D6N holiday trip to Thailand, covering Phuket and Bangkok. This time round, it consisted of our extended family members, accounting to more than 10 pax in total. Our trip would be partly free and easy, and for some days engaging local travel companies for day tours. We departed Singapore on a 2 hour Jetstar Asia flight to Phuket in the early morning.

View of Phuket island from the aircraft

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Phuket is a very popular tourist destination for many travelers around the world, famous for its pristine beaches (especially at the surrounding smaller islands) and tropical scenery. Phuket may not be the cheapest place in Thailand, but it certainly has loads of attractions and activities catered for tourists.

Saladee Gallery Residence

We had arranged with a local company Phuket Travel Company for the day tours in Phuket, as well as the airport-hotel transfers. As soon as we cleared the immigration at Phuket International Airport, we were greeted by the drivers waiting for us. Since we were a large group, we were split into 2 minibuses to transfer us to our hotel at Patong, which was around a 1 hour drive.

We would be staying at Saladee Gallery Residence at Patong throughout our stay in Phuket. It is rather small hotel, but we had selected this hotel due to its excellent location, being strategically located near the heart of Patong (Bangla Road), Jungceylon Shopping Center and of course the Patong beach itself. The price of the rooms was also very affordable, and they had excellent reviews from Tripadvisor and Agoda. We checked in the hotel and were allocated the rooms, which was clean and neat.

Our hotel room

Bathroom

We did not stay long in our rooms. We headed to the Lucky Restaurant just beside our hotel to have our lunch, which sells a mixture of Thai, Chinese, Indian and Arabic cuisine. The serving of the food was rather slow (despite our group was the only customers there), but eventually we managed to finish up the food just before the transport arrived to pick us up for the tour.

Our lunch location at Lucky Restaurant

Phuket Old Town

The Half-Day Phuket City Tour program with Phuket Travel Company kicked off with a visit to Phuket Old Town, which was around an hour drive (by minibus) from our hotel. We were dropped off along Thalang Road, which is considered as the heart of Phuket Old Town. The street is narrow and lined by two rows of heritage shophouses. Many of these shophouses are converted to hotels, cafes, restaurants, boutique clothing shops, souvenir, and handicraft shops. Unfortunately, we were only given 30 min to tour the area, which we had mainly spent our time visiting a couple of shops. 

Walking along Thalang Road

Big Bee Farm Phuket

Next, we headed to the Big Bee Farm Phuket, which is around 20 min drive from Phuket Old Town. The tour began with a short tour around the compound, where we were introduced the different types of honeybees and bee farming. 

Entering Big Bee Farm

Giant bee statue

Information on different types of honeybees

The staff also showed us the beehives with lots of bees, where we could take photos of it. 

Hundreds of bees at the beehive

After this, we were led to a small showroom where the staff would introduce their honey products and the associated health benefits. We did not buy any products from the salesperson and exited the showroom towards the main shop, where they had more honey products (royal jelly, pollen, vinegar, tea, chocolates, and ice-cream etc). 

Giant honeybomb display at the shop

Personally, I felt this place was more of a shop rather than a farm. But nevertheless, it was still interesting to see the honeybees at close-up and learn about the bees and honey products.

Cashew Nut Factory

We boarded our transport and took a short 3 min ride to the next stop, Cashew Nut Factory. 

Big cashew nut display at the entrance

The area is not very big, with one side the cashew processing area and the other side the retail shop. We could see a several ladies operating the machine to crack the nuts. After this, it was sampling tasting and browsing through their huge variety of flavoured cashew nuts and other local produce. 

Woman cracking the cashew nuts

The retail area

The nuts were tasty and some of us ended up buying some of the nuts. After the short shopping activity, we headed back to our transport to the next destination.

Wat Chalong

Our next destination was Wat Chalong, which is just a short 10 min drive away. So far I felt the places I had visited were mainly shopping related, so I was really looking forward to the next destination. Wat Chalong (officially known as Wat Chaithararam) is the largest, and most popular and visited Buddhist temple in Phuket. The temple was built in the 19th century, dedicated to 2 monks Luang Pho Chaem and Luang Pho Chuang. 

From the carpark, we first passed by the main temple, which is the Ubosot. This building is closed for visitors, as only the monks can enter to perform ceremonial services. Nevertheless, we were happy to take photos from outside and admired the architectural design, which consist of very decorative tiered roofs. 

Wat Chalong Ubosot

The next building opposite is the Viharn, which has a similar architectural design as the Ubosot. In addition, there are several elephant statues at the entrance. The temple is open to public and house the bronze statues of the 3 most revered abbots of the temple, where visitors can make their prayers.

Wat Chalong Virhan

Occasionally, we could hear loud 'explosion' that sounded like firecrackers coming from the brick oven in front of the temple. The locals would buy and lit the firecrackers in the oven, and the loud sound signifies that the prayer was heard and answered.

Prayers throwing firecrackers into the oven

The last building we would visit in the complex is the Chedi, which is a magnificent 60m tall temple.

Wat Chalong Chedi

The temple is open to public and has 3 levels. The first two levels contain many Buddha statues. The roof and walls were painted with murals that depicts the life and teachings of Buddha. The 3rd level is an open terrace, which we could see the entire Wat Chalong complex, as well as the surrounding mountainous scenery. 

Overview of Wat Chalong complex from the Chedi

The most important piece of sacred relic that makes the temple special is stored in the glass chamber located here, which is a piece of Buddha's bone fragment. It was brought from Sri Lanka and installed here by then Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn. After this, we exited the temple and headed for our transport to the next destination.

Buddha bone relic in glass chamber

Phuket Big Buddha

Our next destination was the Phuket Big Buddha, which was another 20 min drive winding up the mountainous roads. The Big Buddha is a white coloured Maravija Buddha statue in a seated position, measuring 45m tall and 25.5m wide. It is located on top of the Nakkerd Hill, facing the Chalong Bay, making it an excellent viewpoint of the surrounding area and thus one of the most popular tourist attraction in Phuket.

Walking up from the carpark, we arrived at a large open terrace where we got an unblocked view of the eastern coast of Phuket, more specifically Chalong Bay and the surrounding smaller islands. 

View of Chalong Bay from Big Buddha

From here, the flight of stairs (also known as the Stairway to Heaven) leads up to the upper terrace where the base of the Big Buddha is located. 

Stairway to Heaven

Another magnificent view of Chalong Bay from the upper terrace

Over here, visitors could make prayers and offerings to the Buddha. At the other side of the statue, we could also get a view of the western coast of Phuket, covering the Karon and Kata Beach area. 

The majestic Big Buddha statue

Map of Big Buddha garden

After this, we headed back to the transport and departed for our last attraction of the tour, Promthep Cape.

Promthep Cape

Promthep Cape is located at the southern end of Phuket, which was around 30 min drive from the Big Buddha. It is famous for its sunset viewpoint, and that was exactly the same reason we were going there for. When we arrived at the viewpoint, it was still early for the sunset. But as the time goes by, more and more visitors (both locals and foreign tourists) started pouring into the area to catch the sunset view. From the viewpoint, we could enjoy the sea breeze and beautiful sunset across the Andaman Sea.

Sunset view at Promthep Cape

We had requested our travel agency to book our dinner with Phromthep Cape Restaurant, which is just a short walking distance from the view point. The tables were located outdoor facing the coast, so we had the opportunity to continue enjoying the sunset view while waiting for our dinner to be served. 

Outdoor dining at Phromthep Cape Restaurant

Our reserved table

We ordered several of authentic Thai food such as Seafood Tom Yum, Green Curry Chicken, Stir Fried Chicken, Pineapple Fried Rice, as well as some fries and chicken nuggets for the kids. The food was good and the prices (although higher than other places in Phuket due to its prime location) were within expectation. However, there was one big problem with the place, which there were a lot of mosquitoes in the area, which many of us were badly bitten. Although the staff tried to put several mosquito coils around our table, that was still in vain. This had dampened the entire dining experience, which would have otherwise been a perfect dining event.

The conclusion of our dinner marked the end of our tour. We were picked up by the transport and headed back to our hotel. The journey would take around 45 min. With a full stomach and after a long and tired day, many of us quickly fell asleep during the journey. Upon arrival of our hotel, most of us decided to retire early, except a few young ones who were still energetic and continued to explore the lively street surrounding our hotel.

Bustling night along the main street in Patong